Hypnotherapy and Puff Pieces
Regular readers of my blog will know that I get quite annoyed with journalists who I deem to be lazy. When I say lazy, I mean that they take the word for the hypnotherapist (or any other therapist for that matter) without any kind of due diligence. So the journalist writes about whatever claims that practitioner makes, no matter how fantastic they might be.
As an extension of this is that this laziness extends to organisations as well. I have recently read a piece, what I could consider to be a puff piece (an article that passes itself off as news, but actually is an advertisement for the person or organisation being written about). Again, this article made the approach that was being written about as being the most effective form of therapy ever conceived.
The problem with the claim was that there was no evidence procedure discussed as to how the journalist came to this conclusion. Basically, it was an advertisement concealed in a news piece. Now, I have nothing but respect for journalism when it is done right. I cannot imagine that journalists enjoy writing these pieces, so I urge the publishers of our newspapers to stop publishing these pieces of tripe, which do nothing for the public and only enriches those who are the subject of these articles.
